The Blue Maelstrom
by Oreo2882
Summary: 2 years after logging in to Sword Art online, 3,853 of the original 10,000 players are dead, and 25 floors remain to be cleared. Kayaba has been revealed, but after defeating Kirito in a duel, he decides to spare him and Asuna until the players reach the 100th floor. With the ranks of the frontliners diminishing, new heroes will be forced to step up. OCcentric, AU, canon pairings.
1. Chapter 1: Double Bladed Sword

_Sword Art Online, the first step towards the ultimate MMO. AT least, that's what the 10,000 players who logged in that first day thought it would be. I was one of them._

_Now, two years and one day later, 3,853 of the original 10,000 players are dead, and the greatest of us all has betrayed us. Heathcliff, leader of the guild Knights of Blood, the Man of Legend has been revealed as Kayaba Akihiko. And to top it all off, he's the final boss in this game. All of us who'd been there in the dungeon of the seventy-fifth floor realized how low our chances were of defeating him. 14 of us died in the battle against the Skull Reaper, and at the current rate, it wasn't hard to believe that a mere one or two of us would be all that survived to face the final boss. And as it were, there was no doubt who would be the two who survived: Kirito the Black Swordsman and Asuna the Flash. But that would stop neither myself nor the rest of the clearing group from pushing onwards. For our own sakes, and for those of the players who lived on the lower floors, we had to clear this game at all costs._

_I am Aiden, the sole survivor of the guild Blue Flame, and I am the third player in this game to have been given a unique skill._

_The days following the 75__th__ boss fight were rough. Following Heathcliff's betrayal, the Knights of Blood was disbanded by Asuna, who'd inherited the role of leader. The players were encouraged to either join other guilds or form their own. But that was not the only group to struggle._

_My own guild, Blue Flame, was wiped out during the fight. Over 18 months of friendship and trust… just gone. After that, I just couldn't bring myself to join a new guild quite yet; I decided to go solo for a while, and I wasn't the only one who did. But that wasn't my only reason._

_When we stepped onto the 76__th__ floor, we unanimously agreed to wait until the next day to announce our victory. As soon as that happened, though, I struck out on my own. I was not one for idolization, and if the Holy Swordsman and the Black Swordsman had proven, those with unique skills could not maintain any freedom._

_When I'd received my skill, I could not help but laugh at the absurdity of it; the other Frontliners assumed that I'd been unhinged after watching the rest of my guild die. But that was far from the truth. Now, while most players in SAO preferred to use a one handed weapon, two handed implements did exist, with the sword skills to go along with them. And while the increased range did appeal to some, I personally did not like to wield a weapon with a relatively small lethal area. So, naturally, it'd come as a surprise when Blue Fang dropped for me._

_Though Kayaba had defeated Kirito in their duel, both he and Asuna were spared. He'd also informed the rest of us that, for Kirito's bravery in challenging him and to reward us for taking on one of the toughest bosses so far with a mere 32 players, the 18 of us who'd survived would each be granted a high quality item. And he'd also told us that eight more players would be given unique skills over the next 5 floors, though only two of us were in the room._

_Blue Fang is a two sided sword, two sided as in a blade sprouts from both sides of the hilt. And of course, to go along with it was the skill Two-Sided Sword._

_Thankfully, I had placed agility before strength over the course of leveling up. And while I wasn't heavily unbalanced, I was probably one of the weakest katana users in the clearing group, relying more on dodging and slashing tactics more than hacking and blocking. So when I finally equipped the two sided Blue Fang, it felt natural to dance around with two blades. And while I suffered a few near-death experiences while clearing the 76__th__ floor, I quickly learned how to dance in such a way that the sword seemed to have a mind of its' own._

_When the 42 man party was formed to tackle the 76__th__ floor boss, a few asked why I switched from my traditional armor to weighted monk-style robes; I told them it was more suited to my fighting style. They accepted the explanation, though two in particular seemed skeptical._

_The Flash and The Black Swordsman, solo after the dissolution of the Knights of Blood, were the only two who didn't seem to believe my answer. To my relief, they didn't dig deeper. Not until after the fight, at least._

_With Asuna refusing to take over the Knights of Blood and Kirito simply refusing to take a leadership role, there was no one figure of unchallenged authority amongst the clearing group. But for this fight, our commander, and the one who'd called the strategy meeting, was a man named Guy, a heavyset battle axe wielder who led a decent sized guild formed after the 75__th__ boss fight._

_According to the scouting party, the boss was a huge beast-type monster that resembled a snake with 6 legs, 4 arms, and blades to go with the arms. It also had 4 helpers which looked like smaller versions of the same monster. It had 5 health bars, and while they were smaller than those of The Skull Reaper, they were still formidable._

_The plan was simple. First, we were to split into 8 groups of 6. Groups A and B would be composed of tanks and heavy hitters; their mission would be to target the boss. Groups C and D would be on hand to switch in for any group that got into trouble. Groups E through H would each target one of the helpers, then provide support for A and B. I was assigned to G. Almost immediately, the plan fell apart._

_It started when a member of group E took a direct hit from one of the helpers. While he didn't take a sizable amount of damage, he had been completely paralyzed. The rest of group E took hits in their panic, and soon 2 of them were dead. It'd only been the quick response from group D that saved the lives of the other 3. It was then learned that the paralysis effect from the helpers only lasted 5 seconds, but it was more than enough time to drain our health bars._

_We lost three more before the boss was finally defeated, the last strike being delivered by a hulking black man named Agil, part of group A._

_The next few floors were relatively uneventful; I stayed solo to practice my two sided sword, and we defeated three floor bosses without losing anybody. But then, it happened._

_On the 80__th__ floor, 50 of us had gathered to make an assault on the boss. This one, dubbed Arachne, was a giant spider of monstrous proportions, with a swarm of smaller spiders to serve as helpers. But, like it'd happened on the 75__th__ floor, the room had sealed itself on the recon party, which meant we didn't know that until we entered. Within a minute, we'd already lost five people to the swarm, and another three to Arachne when she burrowed up from the ground._

_In less than five minutes, we were reduced to thirty. On one side of the room, 7 survivors squared off with Arachne, the Blackswordsman and the Flash amongst them. The rest of us were penned into the corner by the relentless swarm. But from there, we could see that they were doomed. The Blackswordsman and the Flash were already being pushed into berserker tactics to keep the focus away from the other members of their group, and all seven of them were in the red in a no-crystal zone. That was when I realized I had to use my new skill…_

"Agil, switch! Keep them off me for 10 seconds!"

The axe-wielding black man did as Aiden asked, stepping in to cleave the bear-sized giant spider in two with an upwards swing. And while he finished off several more, Aiden was busy fiddling with his menu. With one final click, Aiden confirmed his choice. His katana disappeared from his hand, and in its' place appeared a double bladed sword.

"Alright, Agil, whenever you're ready!" Aiden shifted his stance, bracing himself for a maneuver that was likely to get him killed. But, the way he saw it, they were all doomed anyway if he didn't try this.

"Switch!" The axe-wielder called out after knocking a spider back with the haft of his axe, and with a guttural battle cry the double sword wielder charged into the fray. And, after a series of moves that heavily resembled break dancing, Aiden had carved a slice out of the swarm and was rushing towards the group that was busy fighting Arachne.

"What the…" The words slipped out of several mouths in response to what their eyes had seen, but none had the time to wonder about it, as they were once again called upon to focus on the never ending swarm of spiders. In the meantime, however, 1 of the 7 players fighting Arachne was separated from the rest of his team. Sensing this, Arachne made to shoot a web, intending to trap the unlucky member of Fuurinkazan. The red haired samurai tried to dodge, but he'd reacted way too late. The gob of web hit and propelled him into a rocky wall, pinning him. The spider began to move towards him.

"Nooo!"

_Schick._

The web laden appendage dropped to the ground, and in its' place stood a figure in blue robes wielding a double bladed sword.

"Get back!" It yelled out to the other players, and the ones in red and black samurai apparel obeyed, regrouping around their leader, Klein, doing their best to cut him loose from the wall.

"Thanks Aiden, we'll jump in when we've recovered a bit!"

The Blue Monk simply nodded as he jumped up and over the spider, cartwheeling rapidly as he did so to deal damage to the giant spider before landing next to the Black Swordsman and the Flash. All our health bars were still yellow. Arachne still had one full green health bar.

"We need to end this fast! Kirito-kun, Asuna-san, please keep its' head busy for me!"

"_Hai!"_ The responded, and in unison all three of us charged the insect. Asuna, boasting the highest Agility stat and the lightest weapon reached Arachne first, dealing out a lightning-fast 5 hit combo that blinded 5 of Arachne's multiple eyes, creating a small blind spot for Aiden to slip under and slice two of its' legs clean off. Arachne staggered, and before it could react Kirito had managed to cut off two more. Now that it was missing the front half of its' legs, Arachne toppled forwards. But Asuna, having anticipated that, flipped back, making sure to land a few quick thrusts in before she was out of range. Aiden and Kirito finished off the beasts' legs, and in no time at all the beast had been reduced to just a sliver of health. The three raced to the downed beast, each determined to slay it and put an end to this hellish battle.

A second later, Arachne shattered into a thousand pixels. But none of the three warriors missed a beat as they turned towards the last place they'd seen the rest of the clearing party… not including Aiden, Kirito, Asuna, or Fuurikuzan, only a dozen warriors remained in the corner they'd been pressed too, but the swarm was gone. Only then did everybody relax. Minutes passed before somebody regained enough breath to speak.

"That… was amazing… Aiden!" The warrior who'd spoken quickly descended into a coughing fit as he went back to regaining breath.

"How many?" The blue robed warrior asked. Tears were streaming down his face, and the answer that came brought tears to everyone's eyes.

"30…"

The survivors quickly did the math… and despair descended upon them all.


	2. Chapter 2: Unforgiving Guantlet

_After that battle, there were less than 200 of us remaining in the clearing group, with 19 floor bosses to go before we reached Kayaba. Morale was low, even with my double bladed sword ability having been revealed. We continued on with the same routine of floor clearing and level grinding, but with so many players dead it took a month to find the dungeon. During that month, about twenty players caught up enough to join us in clearing the top floors. And one of those players revealed a new unique skill: Unforgiving Gauntlet._

_The wielder of this skill, a tall ebony-haired woman named Keira, was a mid-level player who'd caught up to the clearing group. And like Kirito, she was kind of awe inspiring to watch; after all, you don't usually see monsters get beaten down by hand…_

* * *

After a month, the clearing group had finally found the boss of the 81st floor. And this time, they were not taking chances. Therefore, rather than sending a 20 man recon party into an unknown dungeon, the entire boss group of 36 would be adventuring in, a force that should be more than capable of defeating the boss. According to the party that had discovered it, it was a huge humanoid with an eagle's head and flames covering its' entire body. While there were no guarantees that all their assumptions about the monster would prove correct, it was almost certain that the monster would primarily use physical and flame-element attacks, with the occasional beak attack.

After a few hours of arguing, a plan was finally decided upon. This time, our separate parties would be assigned, with 4 tanks and 2 attackers per group. If the boss really was alone, then groups A and B would attack first, rotate with C and D, then E and F, then repeat until the boss was dead. If there were helpers, groups C through F would be distributed to take care of them. The commander of this operation was to be Klein of Fuurinkazan, who would lead group C alongside Agil. Group A was to be commanded by Kirito and Asuna, B was put under the command of Guy, D was delegated to Schmitt, formerly of the Divine Dragon Alliance, E was put under a mace wielder named Lizbeth (the girl was a former blacksmith who managed to catch up), and group F was assigned to the command of the blue monk, Aiden.

The blue monk silently appraised his assigned party; while he did have no reservations that they would pull through in this fight, he could not help but be angry with the man (not Klein) who had been put in charge of choosing parties.

The main problem Aiden had was with his group's experience; aside from himself, the only other frontliner to regularly participate in boss fights was a man named Hideki, a sword and (tower) shield combo who would be taking the role of center tank. The blue monk was to be an attacker, and his partner, a mace wielding woman named Keira, was one of 5 non-veterans* in the entire boss group. Aiden was skeptical, but he had to admit that she had guts to volunteer for this fight so soon after joining the ranks of the frontlines. He'd give her the benefit of the doubt.

The next day, 36 players gathered outside the boss room, having taken a corridor crystal from Collinia^.

"Alright, now remember, clearing this game is pointless if none of us survive to see the day! Stick to the plan, don't get separated, and don't take any unnecessary risks! Switch when you get in trouble and we should all be okay! Are you ready‽" Klein's voice was powerful, and though he only led a small guild, the blue monk could see why he'd been put in charge of this operation.

"_Hai_!"

"Alright then, let's go! Charge!" The doors opened, and 3 dozen men and women poured into the room, yelling battle cries as they rushed the monster. Luckily for the players, the boss didn't have helpers. What nobody had counted on, however, was the eagle-man being able to _breathe_ fire.

It started when the boss was reduced to two health bars, about an hour into the fight. Almost immediately, the offending attacker, Guy of group B, was incinerated by a blast of fire. A second later, his avatar burst into pixels. While the eagle man had been wielding a pair of flame swords, and had even been shooting the occasional pillar of flame from said swords, no one had expected that. It was only thanks to the quick thinking of Guys' second in command, an axe and shield combo named Harmond, that group B pulled it together and managed to save their other attacker, while group C stepped in to counter the now frequent gouts of fire coming from the eagle's mouth. The veterans were unfazed; they merely kept attacking. The new frontliners, however, were quite visibly perturbed. The blue monk commanding group F noticed this immediately.

"Keep it together! If you panic, you'll get yourselves killed!" His voice was confident and unwavering, and with a roar he rushed in to relieve group B. His squad followed, and they arrived just in time to block a strike from one of the boss' swords. Aiden then rushed in towards the eagle-mans' leg.

"Sword Skill: Rotary Blade!"

The blue monk dissolved into a blue blur as he twirled, delivering a three hit combo in half a second.

"Sword Skill: Dragon Punch!"

A green and brown blur shot past him, and when it reformed it showed Keira, arm extended from the wicked haymaker she'd apparently just delivered to the beast man's knee. And just when he and the rest of the group were convinced she was suicidal, the eagle-man howled and dropped on that knee, acting for all intents and purposes like a man who'd just been knee capped. And on top of that the combined assault had managed to drop a third of one of its' health bars, leaving it with one and a half. But because of that, the monks' party was suddenly the target of both its arms and the flame spewing maw.

Without a word, the monk and the pugilist leapt out of the path of the dual sword assault and huddled behind the shields of their party as they endured the brunt of the flamethrower, giving the other parties ample time to swoop in, deal some damage, then switch. When the torrent of flame finally ended, the monk took a quick glance at his party's health bars; all veering dangerously close to the red zone now, his own included. But while the eagle-man had been venting his fury, the other parties had brought its' health all the way into the red zone of its' penultimate health bar. Aiden stopped to consider that; even though his squad was composed mostly of rookies, they might be able to defeat it without losing anyone. Unfortunately, its' fury was now directed solely on them, meaning switching out would be completely impossible, as the monster would recognize Keira as the biggest threat on the field until someone else dished out as much damage as she had. And in that case, the fight would end anyway, which meant squad F was in it to win it.

"Keira-san, Hideki-kun, let's get around to the other side of it. It's fury is purely on us now, so if we can turn its' back to everyone else, they might be able to kill it before it kills us. Go!"

As one, the entire formation shot to the right, making a break for the eagle-man's broken knee. The eagle-man's left sword swiped; Keira dove over, Aiden slid under, and Hideki's men deflected the blade, causing it to swing back towards the attacking pair. But they were prepared for that, and after dodging the first time, Aiden shot into the air, angling for an upwards swing at Keira, who launched herself off the flat of the blade directly towards the eagle-mans' throat.

"Sword Skill: Gods' Haymaker!" With a crack like thunder, her fist connected with the eagle-mans' larynx, and the flames stopped spewing. The eagle-mans' health bar drained from a quarter to empty and he toppled, with Keira's arm buried to the shoulder in the eagle-mans' throat. And then he dissolved into a million pixels. All stared in pure shock; never before had a boss monster taken so much damage in one hit, let alone display any sort of negative status change.

Keira strode over to Aiden, placing a gauntleted hand on his shoulder. He took a moment to fully drink in her appearance; long ebony hair tied back in a high pony tail framed European features. Her midsized armor consisted of a breast plate, sabatons#, greaves#, cuisse#, rerebraces#, and gauntlets, all lacquered green, worn over a form fitting brown shirt and black pants… which, Aiden supposed, would actually make it a modified arming doublet#. Not that it mattered.

"We work well together, Aiden-kun."

"Uh… yeah." Aiden wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Party with me sometime?"

Aiden hadn't expected _that._ But he was more than willing to party up with a fellow unique skill user.

"Sure."

Keira nodded, and then they both went to celebrate with the other 33 warriors before crossing through the portal to the 82nd floor.

* * *

* While any player in SAO to kill a single monster would be considered a veteran in the traditional sense of the word, the word "veteran" is used here to denote someone who's participated in a boss battle before, which I imagine would encompass less than 300 players at this point, most of them front liners or army.

^ The city with the Colliseum on the 75th floor. Also where most of the strategy meetings are held, unless otherwise stated.

#Armor terms. Sabatons are plate boots, greaves are plate armor for your shins, cuisse are plate armor for your thighs, and rerebraces are plate armor for your upper arms. These are attached to the arming doublet, which is the (usually) leather coat worn under it all.


End file.
